Today's Song Is...

Music to listen to... Perhaps... If you're not too busy

[todayssongsis]

Some serious soul from Archie Bell and the Drells.

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXky78IDQjI)

[todayssongsis]

Before she went solo Chaka Khan was the lead singer for Rufus. They made some great music before she went solo and made more great music.

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-GCqrNfiRY)

[todayssongsis]

“There are at least 500 shades of the blues.”

Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson show how political protest songs can be done.

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wixtjUL42E)

[todayssongsis]

Rain Machine is a side project of TV on the Radio’s Kyp Malone. There are several really lovely tracks on the album.

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CUsPALIA18)

[todayssongsis]

Solomon Burke - Hard, It Ain’t Hard

Solomon Burke covering Woody Guthrie is just such a lovely idea. Jerry Wexler produced this album.

[todayssongsis]

Dionne Warwick - Anyone Who Had A Heart

This was written by Bacharach and David for Dionne Warwick. It has some really cool time signature changes and is just a lovely song.

[todayssongsis]

Warren Zevon - Lawyers, Guns and Money

A song for our times.

[todayssongsis]

Randy Newman - Political Science

Randy Newman, before he became completely Disney, with a song for our times (written in the 70s).

[todayssongsis]

Philip Sayce - Save Me From Myself

The first post to this blog was Philip Sayce so it’s only sensible to kick of my second year with the gentleman too.

[todayssongsis]

One Year of Today’s Song Is..

This Tumblr has been going for a year. Thank you very much to everyone who has liked, shared, followed and even just listened to any of the stuff here.

The whole archive of 365 posts can be found here.

Cheers!

[Image: Three skeletons at the piano (1893) from The National Archives UK via Flickr Commons]

[todayssongsis]

Colonel Claypool’s Bucket of Bernie Brains - Scott Taylor

I love that Les Claypool got Bernie Worrell to join him on this project. Bernie Worrell is the keyboardist behind both Parliament and Funkadelic as well as the man who made the Talking Heads good (IMO).

[todayssongsis]

George Duke - Reach For It

George Duke was a stunning musician. I always think of him as smiling on the bandstand, but his playing was seriously good.

[todayssongsis]

Chick Corea - Tones For Joan’s Bones

Chick Corea has had an incredible career. It all started here with this song, this band and this album. The band is absurdly good. Joe Chambers and Steve Swallow make this track truly great.

[todayssongsis]

Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway - Where Is The Love?

This duet album is from the golden period of Atlantic Records soul output. Arif Mardin was a genius producer and arranger. There are so many spectacular little elements of musicianship behind these wonderful voices that this track deserves repeated listening.

[todayssongsis]

Smokey Robinson And The Miracles - Who’s Gonna Take The Blame

This song was the B side to Tears Of A Clown. It’s a great song in its own right written by the wonderful Ashford and Simpson.

[todayssongsis]

Silver Jews - Advice To The Graduate

Rock music has always been a field where pairings of people seem to be important. The Silver Jews had the pairing of David Berman and Stephen Malkmus. It seemed to work.

[todayssongsis]

The Band - Tears Of Rage

Lyrics by Bob Dylan and music by Richard Manuel this is an extraordinary song. Richard Manuel was a stunning musician. This version is from The Band’s Music From The Big Pink.